McBride slams Cele’s ‘feeble attempt’ at peddling ‘discredited’ allegations of betrayal

Police watchdog body Ipid’s executive head Robert McBride has hit back at Minister of Police Bheki Cele, after the minister reportedly approached police portfolio committee (PPC) member Sibonakaliso Mhlongo and told him that McBride had “sold state secrets to criminals”.

This followed allegations from Nafiz Modack, a suspect in an Ipid investigation, that McBride was bribed by cigarette manufacturer Adriano Mazzotti to get information on Modack.

Now McBride has released a statement calling the allegations against him “nothing but a feeble attempt to prop up a false narrative that I have committed misconduct or that I somehow have a cloud over my head, merely because someone has made allegations”.

According to McBride, the allegations are “discredited”, and first emerged after Ipid launched an investigation into corruption allegations against former acting national commissioner Khomotso Phahlane. He was approached by City Press, he says, and they did not run the story after discovering it was “obviously fake”.

He says the allegations then ended up at the Public Service Commission (PSC), which he says also found they were “unsubstantiated”.

READ MORE: McBride, Cele set for all-out war

McBride then turns his attention to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who he says “seems to have written to the minister advising him of her office having received the same allegations which were investigated and found to be unsubstantiated by another Chapter 9 institution”.

He adds that, by his account, Mkhwebane never even brought these allegations to the Ipid’s attention.

McBride then discusses two more allegations made against him, one involving R500,000 which he says the PSC withdrew its report into, and one from former Ipid investigator Cedrick Nkabinde, who he dismisses, saying he released a “report” featuring “no findings” and instead just “unfounded allegations”. He adds that a court found Nkabinde to be “dishonest and unreliable” in 2018.

“These complaints are discredited and malicious and any objective person should have the insight to sift fact from fiction and malice,” McBride concludes.

The Citizen reported earlier on Wednesday that the minister and the Ipid boss were heading for all-out war.

McBride pulled out of testifying at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture after news broke that Cele would not be renewing McBride’s contract for a second term, leaving many wondering why.

Documents offering more information on the McBride vs Cele drama can be read here:

OPSC, City Press and Settle… by on Scribd

Unreliable Nkabinde by on Scribd

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Additional reporting by Amanda Watson)

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